A $3 to 4 billion gold-copper deposit overlooks Wyoming's State Capital

Consulting geologist, Dan Hausel (aka GemHunter)
searching for gold in the Copper King area.

Some decades ago, Dan Hausel, a research geologist at the Wyoming Geological Survey at UW, came across the Copper King mine in the Silver Crown district west of Cheyenne, and 3 miles north of I-80. It seemed like the deposit was just waiting for the right conditions to be revived. Although, many claimed this property was mined-out simply because it was not being mined. But Hausel knew better. He reports that few mines are ever actually mined out. Most end up closing because of economics such as price drops in metals, company mis-management, wars, and often because of over-regulation by government.

"A mined-out mine is almost as rare as an honest politician" –Dan Hausel

A mined-out mine is almost as rare as an honest politician. And properties like the Copper King have considerable potential and await the right group of people and favorable economic condition to again become an operating mine. It is said, "mines are not found, they are made"! In other words, the stars must align in the right position to make a mine. One needs the right economics, the right CEO, an optimistic geologist, the right government to have any chance of opening a mine.

Hausel was lucky enough to examine this mine and nearby properties in the early 1980s for the Wyoming Geological Survey, the University of Wyoming Engineering Department, and the University of Wyoming MMRRI (Mining and Mineral Resource Research Institute). The mine outlasted UW's MMRRI. In addition to this property, in the 1980s, Hausel and his field assistant mapped all of the accessible mines in this area and searched for other properties with potential. At the time, he ran into two ranchers who became friends, who actually worked in the mill at the Copper King, and another rancher who worked in the nearby Comstock mine. These two were wonderful cowboys who would give you the shirt of their backs, unlike some today.

Anyway, Hausel interpreted the Copper King to represent a root-zone of a Proterozoic-age, gold-copper porphyry deposit. In other words, he thought the mine was likely between 1.8 to 1.4 billion years old based on the ages of nearby Proterozoic metamorphic rocks and Sherman Granite. It is likely this area in Wyoming, along with regions in the Snowy Range and Sierra Madre Years, have similarities to Proterozoic age rocks in Arizona, where world-class massive sulfide deposits are found. After providing summaries to the UW MMRRI, he later, looked at the property for research publications on gold and on base metals. Then, a couple of years ago, came upon another opportunity to visit the property as a consultant for a group of mining companies.

"Fleas can be taught nearly anything that a Congressman can." –Mark Twain

After attracting companies to drill the property when he was at the Geological Survey in Laramie, the Copper King was shown to have a resource equivalent of more than a million ounces of gold! Yes, and this property has just been sitting there, looking at the State Capital, and listening to the I-80 traffic to the south, and the Happy Jack road traffic to the north for all of these decades. Hard to believe, but just 19.5 miles east of the mine, sits the State Capitol Building.

Imagine this, sitting next to Cheyenne and stone's throw from the Interstate and from the Happy Jack road, is a rich mineral deposit that has a minimum of $1.54 billion in gold, and $864 million in copper based on prices some years ago!!! Today (May, 2023), the value of the metals is more than $2 billion in gold, and more than $1 billion in copper. How can that happen? If you know where to go, you can actually drive to this treasure even in a Honda Fit according to Hausel! And it is not the only rich mineral deposit sitting next to a highway, interstate, or county road in Wyoming. Hausel is credited with finding many mineral deposits next to roads, one even in a road, and others in the middle of no where.  In fact, he and two other Wyomingites found a giant gold deposit in Alaska, in the middle of absolutely no where Alaska, in the late 1980s, that contains $10s of billions in gold. On top of that, he discovered many gemstone deposits and other gold deposits in the Rattlesnake Hills, Seminoe Mountains, and South Pass greenstone belts.

Aerial photo showing location of the Copper King mine in relation to the Twin Mountains cryptovolcanic structures.

US Gold picked up the Copper King (Mining Quarterly Spring, 2019). The nifty thing about this property, is that it was originally mined for copper in the 19th and 20th centuries. Hausel even met some of the people who worked in the mine and mill decades ago - they were extremely pleasant people and had many stories to tell. The ore was milled across the road from the mine and smelted next to the mill. But the gold resource in those days was not considered important, as it was too low-grade with gold prices at only about $20/ounce. But today's gold price ($1,943/ounce in May, 2023) is nearly 100 times higher than in the past. So, it appears, it may again be economic!

Based on drilling by several companies over the years including the now defunct US Bureau of Mines (the Bureau of Mines was eliminated by the Clinton Administration, even though it was likely the most respected research agency in the world at the time, because it assisted the mining industry), the ore body at Copper King is known to have measured and indicated drilled resources of 966,000 ounces of gold and 236,000,000 pounds of copper, with inferred resource of 184,000 ounces of gold and 62,000,000 pounds of copper, and likely hidden deposits in the area that need to be drilled.

After working on the property a couple of years ago, Hausel showed that the known ore body was cut off and down-dropped to the east along the Copper King fault. So, part of the ore body remains to be drilled under an unknown thickness of gravel. There is undoubtedly more gold and copper (as well as silver) in this area, and may even be some zinc, as he found sphalerite (a zinc-sulfide) at a nearby property with similar hydrothermal alteration mineral assemblages as the Copper King. And most porphyry gold-copper deposits include silver and zinc.

And, it may not end there. The likelihood of gold placers downstream from the property has never been, but no one has bothered looking for gold in gravels. While consulting on this property, Hausel examined core specimens that had visible gold (known as free gold); so it is likely some gold ended up in the surrounding streams. This is supported by geology that indicates nearby diamond-bearing kimberlites have had as much as 2,000 to 3,000 feet of erosion since the Early Paleozoic. That could be a lot of gold transported down-stream over a long time.

The Copper King is adjacent to the Colorado-Wyoming diamond province and near a group of cryptovolcanic structures (Twin Mountains structurally controlled depressions) that Hausel discovered while consulting for DiamonEx Ltd 7 miles southwest of the Copper King. So, for prospectors in the area, look for both gold and placer diamonds in any nearby creeks. Hausel also found similar cryptovolcanic depressions continuing north to the Iron Mountain kimberlite district in the Laramie Mountains. Some UW students, working on his research teams, also recovered diamond indicator minerals in this part of the Laramie Mountains, as well as rubies.

Although, practically no one has looked for diamonds in surrounding streams in the Colorado-Wyoming region, there must be millions of diamonds in stream gravels west of Copper King. Not so long ago, some very nice diamonds were recovered from stream gravels in Fish Creek, Rabbit Creek, George Creek and others in the region. Two placer diamonds weighed 5 carats! And as far as gold, he suspects that if anyone did any prospecting in gravels downstream from the property, they would find placer gold.

So, get your gold pan and go have a look!

Gold Deposits Near Cheyenne, Wyoming

Yes, its a silly looking hat. But in Wyoming, even the GemHunter needs to be warm. 

When Hausel began working for the Wyoming Geological Survey, it was a relatively productive government agency in charge of unraveling the geology associated with mineral deposits as well as  in charge of finding new mineral deposits. But, we were one of the smallest agencies in the State: a very sad commentary for a state that makes its living off mining and oil and gas resources. In addition, salaries were just one step above some custodians.

Prospectors and geologists a found many at the University of Wyoming were anti-mining. This is a very strange concept particularly since the University of Wyoming and many of the professors owe their jobs and existence to the mining and oil and gas industries. But even professors are under the assumption that money grows on trees.

Some years ago, Hausel was asked to assist in building a Children's Museum in downtown Laramie - it was going to have a geology theme. He donated rocks and assisted in building a mine tunnel for the kids to walk through and on the outside of this exhibit, one board member requested he put on a simple pie diagram to show kids and parents how important mining and oil and gas was to the state. It was a pie diagram showing ad valoreum taxes to the state. Whoa - was this a bad idea.

Hydrothermal alteration mineral assemblages found in the Silver Crown district, Wyoming, and on
some nearby properties.

One board member, a flaming liberal professor from the university, demanded the pie diagram be modified to show mining, oil and gas were not important! She demanded that statistics needed to be modified to fit her agenda! "Mining can't be important she exclaimed - it's bad for the environment and attracts dirty people". Hausel mentioned they were dirty because they have to work for a living (unlike her) and mention mining was also referenced in the Holy Bible, and no where did it indicate mining was a bad profession - remember the Golden Fleece? This was sheep skin used in a sluice to extract gold. As suspected, she was not into the Bible. 

Visible gold is seen in rock sample adjacent to brassy
pyrite in this sample from the Copper King

That was one of the first times science took it in the shorts for politics - and this was 30 years ago. Hausel quit volunteering at the Children's Museum when the rest of the board sided with the liberal professor and modified the pie diagram to show mining and oil and gas contributed little to the state. 

When Hausel left the Wyoming Geological Survey some years later, another corrupt professor hired Chinese and Russian communists on the geological survey staff.

Over the years, he developed a fascination with different mining districts, and one of his favorites was the Silver Crown. At one time he had planned to do a detailed study of the hydrothermal alteration patterns at the Copper King and acquired drill core from the US Bureau of Mines and hoped to find money to pay for thin sections and microprobe analyses, but it didn't work out.

Stockworks at the Copper King

In spite of this and set-backs, he was able to spend time on the ground at the Silver Crown district and at the Copper King mine and map the accessible underground mines in the district (Hausel and Jones, 1982) and over the years, spent time researching the mineralization and alteration at the Copper King mine and nearby properties (Hausel, 1997). It became clear that the Copper King was a deeply-eroded core of a Proterozoic age gold-copper porphyry. Over the years, he had exploration geologists and company CEOs visiting his office on the UW Campus while searching for ideas for gold mines. They were told that this was one of his top picks for a commercial gold deposit. Some listened, and it was picked up time and time again. But like most commercial gold deposits, development awaits the an alignment of stars.

Most are under the impression when a commercial gold (or other metal or gemstone) deposit is found, it is "Eureka" and then the mining begins. Unfortunately, that never happens except in the movies. "Mines are made, they are not found" was stated at some talk attended at the Northwest Mining Convention many years ago. It takes the right circumstances, people, investments, government support, etc, etc, etc. Take a look at the Pebble deposit in Alaska. A prophyry deposit so large that it dwarfs the Bingham Canyon deposit in Utah. Can you imagine finding a $100 billion deposit and no one can figure out how to make a mine out of it?  WestGold found a world-class, $multi-billion gold deposit at Donlin Creek Alaska in 1988, and its taken 34 years so far to put it in production. Hausel found gold in 1981 at the Rattlesnake Hills, and again, no one yet has made a mine out of it.

Pervasive propylitic altered quartz monzonite

The Copper King mine near Cheyenne, was drilled by the US Bureau of Mines (one of the few productive government agencies that met its demise under Clinton and Gore because it didn't fulfill their political agenda of making things greener - so thousands of government employees were terminated, valuable research ended, all because a few politicians wanted to promote global warming whether fact or fiction) and several different exploration companies. 

It is apparent that the deposit is bigger - based on exploration and drilling - it is open in every direction (except up). That's right, drilling has yet to find the limits of the ore deposit. However, the ore appears to end to the east - or does it?  

Then there is the problem of having similar anomalies in the area. Terry Klein of the USGS pointed out that there were similar hydrothermal anomalies nearby, and I worked on another I found that appears to be very large, but could not map the anomaly due to private land access problems. 

References Cited
Hausel, W.D., and Jones, S., 1982, Geological reconnaissance report of metallic deposits for in situ and heap leaching extraction research possibilities: Geological Survey of Wyoming Open File Report 82-4, 51 p.

Hausel, W.D., 1997, The geology of Wyoming's copper, lead, zinc, molybdenum, and associated metal deposits: Geological Survey of Wyoming Bulletin 70, 224 p.